These Precious Moments
by Diva-esque
Summary: Mitsuki and Takuto share a moment together.


Aishuu Offers:  
**These Precious Moments**  
A Full Moon wo Sagashite Arina. All Arina.  
Note: I wrote this around episode eight, finally decided to polish it. So... spoilers up till eight? It doesn't fit anymore, but... it's fanfic.

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She didn't want to sleep.

Mitsuki knew her grandmother would worry, and Wakaouji-sensei would certainly gently reprimand her for not taking better care of herself. Still… she had seen the shinigami, and she knew what the boded for her.

A year to live.

She had a year to live, and rather than terrifying her, it energized her. She had no barriers ahead of her. She didn't need to fear dying anymore, and the constraints society placed on her meant little. She had overcome the boundaries of family, age and had just won a place in the music industry; now all she had to do was get her music heard by Echi before her time was up.

Mitsuki had a promise to keep.

Still, sleep seemed like a pointless exercise to her. Every moment wanted to be something she could savor. She liked being awake at night, watching the moon wax and wane with its pale and gentle light. She knelt by her window, staring up at it. Right now it was in its final quarter, and she new it would only be another few days before the new moon arrived. On those nights, there was no moonlight, but the stars would seem to shine more brightly.

"Are you still awake?" a chiding voice asked her from behind..

She jumped, spinning around in startlement to see Takuto floating behind her, his arms crossed over his chest. She had thought both Takuto and Meroko were out on the roof, discussing whatever they did when she wasn't near them. She knew their job required something she didn't quite understand, but recognized it as the cost of their being shinigami. Strangely, the word didn't scare her as much as it used to. The two were just so nice that she knew they didn't want to wish her any harm.

"Yes. I was merely..."

"Staying up too late, losing sleep. You have a busy day tomorrow, and if you don't take care of yourself, you're going to make yourself sick again," Takuto said, sighing a bit. He gave her a stern look, floating closer. "You need to take better care of yourself."

Mitsuki smiled at him. "But there's so little time left to do what I want to. I want to make each moment special."

The cat shinigami looked troubled, his eyes darkening. "I..." he turned away, obviously unable to think of anything to say.

The girl knew from Meroko that Takuto was in training, and sometimes his awkwardness with her made her wonder. "Takuto… who were you? Before you were shinigami?"

Takuto looked at her, something hidden in his eyes. "Before I was shinigami?" he asked. "You want to know who I was before- why do you think there was a before?" His face grew distant

She shifted forwarded, leaning on her elbows, something in her face wise in the way only children were. "Because when I sing, you listen to me. You hear my message… and I don't think anyone who wasn't human could understand me." She gave him a smile. "You love music, and music is a human thing."

He seemed to freeze, and then the ears on his head, which she had always thought to be decorative, instead of functional, twitched. He smiled and then he rose to his feet, stretching before staring down at the girl who he had bound himself to for a year by a promise. "Before - I was something greater…" he smiled down at her, though his eyes weren't seeing her.

"When I was younger… when I was alive…" he whispered. Then he shook his head. "You'll find out someday, Mitsuki-chan." His eyes looked at the clock, and then at her form. "Go to sleep. Even sleep is part of the moments we live… do you know shinigami don't dream?" he asked.

She shook her head, and walked over to the plush blanket on her futon. "I… I didn't…"

His lips quirked, and it may have been a smile. "Shinigami remember what has past… but we do not dream. For us, there is no future." Takuto brushed the hair off her forehead with a thoughtful hand. "I do not know how you will die… or when, Mitsuki… but while you live, live with a brave heart, and always sing with your strongest voice."

He started to head towards to the window, on the verge of leaving, but a quiet voice stopped him. "Arigatou, Takuto… with your help, I'm sure my song will be the best…"

His fists clenched, and he whirled around, the decorative wings on his back flaring in agitation. "As long as you think like that, Mitsuki, you will never sing a true song. As long as you chase after that boy, or count on others to make you sing, you will get nowhere…" Something dark flared across his eyes and he seemed to be on the verge of an explosion, one which he barely reigned in. "Until you can sing for yourself, Mitsuki, your voice will never be pure."

"Ta-" she began to protest, but he stormed out, vanishing into the night that Eichi had been so enamored of.

She got out of bed and stumbled crossed the worn carpet. Mitsuki leaned against the window, staring at the waning moon. For some reason, the light didn't seem nearly as warm and welcoming as it should have been. Why had Takuto been so upset about her not singing with a true voice… and what had it possibly meant this evening. He had always seemed so mysterious to her, but tonight, he seemed dark as well. She shivered in the cold night air, wondering.

Mitsuki had a year. That much was clear; and she wasn't going to waste any of those precious moments. She would cherish every second of them, even those she slept… the dead did not dream. And if there was one thing she loved, aside from people and singing, it was her dreams.

And somewhere in the distance, a beautiful male voice raised itself in a solitary song she couldn't hear, but her heart would have understood, even if the words were in no known human tongue. The sorrow and pain in it would have torn at her very soul- for the language of the soul crosses all barriers, even that of death itself.

END

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I'd set this before Mitsuki's debut and it's AU, since in later episodes we learn about how the whole Shinigami thing works. 


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